Saint of the week: The First Martyrs of the Roman Church

Just outside Rome’s city walls, under the soft grass and orange trees, are the catacombs. These tunnels of volcanic rock once held the bodies and bones of more than 60 martyrs. They’re gone now, either sent as relics to various churches and shrines around the world, or simply returned to dust by time. 

As we descended into the San Callixtus catacombs, the phrase “handing on the Faith” looped through my mind. As we knelt on the damp stone where Cecilia’s broken body once lay, I kept thinking: We wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t been here first. If you hadn’t had a heart stronger than death. 

In my own experience, the phrase “handing on the Faith” often means gentle dialogues and invitational ministry. But the Church was born in fire and blood. The Apostles and first Christians handed on the Faith from secret tunnels where they whispered the liturgy in darkness, and from roaring stadiums where wild dogs ate them alive, and from Roman streets where Nero set their bodies aflame to be human streetlamps. 

Aside from a few whose names we know, most of the first martyrs of the Church of Rome are unknown. Yet the debt we owe them is in so many ways unfathomable. What would the whole world be now if they had not handed on the Faith in brief flashes of darkness-defeating light? If they had not built the Church from the living stones of their own bodies? Think of the vacuum of art, architecture, literature, music, education, philosophy, culture. Think of the gaping void of outreach, service, and care for the most needy. Think of the loneliness. Think of the despair. 

In the catacombs, an image came to me of a relay race: one athlete running full throttle to hand the torch to the next. The first martyrs ran forward to take up the torch knowing they would be almost immediately cut down. How many had to willingly join that relay of martyrdom so the Light of the World would not be extinguished? 

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it, in no small part because the first martyrs carried the torch. Because they burned not only in an emperor’s fire, but with faith, hope, and love.

The feast of the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome is June 30. 

Read more about the Roman martyrs

• I wrote reflections on Agnes and Perpetua and Felicity. 

• This book is one of my favorites about the Roman martyrs, although it’s out of print so you will need to find it secondhand. 

• The classic Foxe’s Book of Martyrs covers a millennia of martyrs, with the first few chapters devoted to the Roman martyrs.

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